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911 “MISSING” Posters Of Disembodied Souls
Irony is one of the first things that goes in a dictatorship. – Author, Ken Kalfus
How did that bizarre and unrealistic 9/11 – 9/12 poster-blitz happen? Did it immediately occur to a few thousand “survivors” to prepare missing person type posters, bring them into the city and tack them up? Is this a reasonable scenario? Wouldn’t their “missing loved one” have come home or, at very least, telephoned to say they were alive? Please forgive the oxymoronic presumption of a living datafake.
Did each “family” receive a phone call that went something like this?
I really regret bothering you in your time of grief. Permit me to tell you how sorry I am that your (husband, son, daughter, wife, etc.) died today in a terrorist attack. I need to ask that you do something important. Please prepare a simple “missing person” flier along with a photo of your lost loved one on a standard 8.5 by 11 inch sheet of paper. Use an ink-jet printer and bring it downtown as soon as you can. Be sure to bring thumb tacks, tape and you might need a step-ladder. Space is going fast and we want to be sure that your poster appears. Again, let me express my deep sorrow for your loss. Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
I cannot put it better than Mr. Shack does himself:
So what was the deal with those fliers? What sort of collective phenomena would have caused hundreds of families to reach for downtown Manhattan, on the evening of the tragedy, to plaster the city with “MISSING” fliers? If we are to have a rational discourse about this matter, we must first tackle one basic, elementary question: is this what people usually do when buildings collapse ? or even in the aftermath of earthquakes or other calamities? No. It is something you might (possibly) do when a stray kid is feared abducted, kidnapped or on the run. Even in such circumstances, families will prefer to rely on the authorities – not on fliers. Such neighborhood pamphlets are usually reserved for pets gone astray.
